I made chicken soup with dumplings yesterday. Today it will chicken soup with rice. One 4.5 lb chicken will feed our family twice. The grocery store had their whole chickens on sale for .39 a lb. I paid $1.50 each for 3 whole chickens. I had everything on hand to make chicken soup with dumplings so two meals costs us $1.50. Even if the chicken was more than $1.50, whole chickens are more work but they are less expensive and you get awesome broth.